Many cellular phones, PDAs and other wireless devices are capable of internet connection. Typically, these devices can use a dial-up connection, which is a lower speed connection, or be supplied with a data-plan, and use a broad-band connection, which is a higher speed connection.
Additionally, many of these wireless devices are BLUETOOTH enabled, or provided with some other type of wireless networking capability. BLUETOOTH provides a connection through which a secondary device, such as a laptop computer, can be used to connect to the wireless device and, through it, to the internet.
Simply establishing communication between the laptop and the wireless device may not be sufficient, however, to create an internet connection. It may be the case that additional information needs to be entered by a user.
One example of this is provided at “http://www.rickysays.com/cell-phone-as-a-laptop-modem.” According to this website, both the phone and the computer require some configuration to set-up a wireless internet connection through the phone. Such configuration of the communication connection may also be called “provisioning.”
According to the website, the first step is to “pair” the wireless device with the laptop. The website states:
For a WINDOWS VISTA PC, follow these steps:                1. Click on the Start Button, click on Control Panel, click on Printers and Other Hardware, and click on BLUETOOTH devices.        2. Click Add and then follow the instructions (the PC then provides a series of instructions on how to pair the devices).        
Once the pairing is complete, the process is only partially finished. The computer and wireless device can now “talk” to each other, but an internet connection may not yet be established. Accordingly, the website continues:                1. Click the Start Icon and the select the “Connect To” menu        2. Select your phone from the list, and click “Connect.” You'll be prompted to enter your dial-up account user name, password, and phone number.        
Naturally, completion of these steps requires the user to know the dial-up account user name, password and phone number. This information, however, may not be readily known to a user. Often it requires some searching on a provider's website to discover. Unlike many user name/password combinations, this particular user name/password combination may not be user-selected. Many wireless data-plan providers use a generic or formulaic user-name/password combination. For example, Verizon uses—phone number without dashes@vzw3g.com as a user name, and “vzw” as a password (i.e., if a user's phone number was 555-555-1212, then the user name would be: 5555551212@vzw3g.com). Each individual provider may have a different formula or generic login credentials. Thus, if different wireless devices are used to connect from a single laptop at different times, it is likely that the login credentials and phone number for each connection would need to be known and input by the user.